Mary's bookshelf: library-available en-US Fri, 26 Jul 2024 15:32:06 -0700 60 Mary's bookshelf: library-available 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall]]> 28510777
Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom—leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home—was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own.

Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna’s daughter, Nina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives—grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin, Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team—a bitter political war kept them apart.

In Forty Autumns, Nina recounts her family’s story—five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer, running secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk.

A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation, and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love—of five women whose spirits could not be broken, and who fought to preserve what matters most: family.

Forty Autumns is illustrated with dozens of black-and-white and color photographs.]]> 416 Nina Willner 0062410334 Mary 0 4.35 2016 Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
author: Nina Willner
name: Mary
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves: to-read, library-available, recommended
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found]]> 4678790
Destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE, the ruins of Pompeii offer the best evidence we have of life in the Roman Empire. But the eruptions are only part of the story. In The Fires of Vesuvius, acclaimed historian Mary Beard makes sense of the remains. She explores what kind of town it wasâ more like Calcutta or the Costa del Sol?â and what it can tell us about “ordinary� life there. From sex to politics, food to religion, slavery to literacy, Beard offers us the big picture even as she takes us close enough to the past to smell the bad breath and see the intestinal tapeworms of the inhabitants of the lost city. She resurrects the Temple of Isis as a testament to ancient multiculturalism. At the Suburban Baths we go from communal bathing to hygiene to erotica.

Recently, Pompeii has been a focus of pleasure and from Pink Floyd’s memorable rock concert to Primo Levi’s elegy on the victims. But Pompeii still does not give up its secrets quite as easily as it may seem. This book shows us how much more and less there is to Pompeii than a city frozen in time as it went about its business on 24 August 79.

(20081006)]]> 360 Mary Beard 0674029763 Mary 4 The ruins were first rediscovered in the 18th century, and excavations are still going on. Ms. Beard looks at what has been found and tries to describe what it tells us about daily life, from the temples to the bars to the baths. Quite a bit is written about the various houses and how they represent different occupations and status levels. Much has been written about Pompeiian life that is rather fanciful and romantic. Ms. Beard re-examines what has been assumed and presents the reader with a fuller, but sometimes fuzzier idea of daily life.
If you are interested in Pompeii, or are planning a trip there some day, this book is well worth your time.]]> 4.06 2008 The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found
author: Mary Beard
name: Mary
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: library-available, 2024-reading-challenge, history, italy, audio
review:
This is the second Mary Beard book I have read. It was not quite what I expected, but that is a good thing on the whole. It is NOT a disaster book, describing how Vesuvius buried the town in ash. It is a fairly comprehensive look at what the ruins of Pompeii tell us about what life was like in 79CE and before.
The ruins were first rediscovered in the 18th century, and excavations are still going on. Ms. Beard looks at what has been found and tries to describe what it tells us about daily life, from the temples to the bars to the baths. Quite a bit is written about the various houses and how they represent different occupations and status levels. Much has been written about Pompeiian life that is rather fanciful and romantic. Ms. Beard re-examines what has been assumed and presents the reader with a fuller, but sometimes fuzzier idea of daily life.
If you are interested in Pompeii, or are planning a trip there some day, this book is well worth your time.
]]> Lost For Words 34320324 You can trust a book to keep your secret . . .

Loveday Cardew prefers books to people. If you look closely, you might glimpse the first lines of the novels she loves most tattooed on her skin. But there are things she'll never show you.

Fifteen years ago Loveday lost all she knew and loved in one unspeakable night. Now, she finds refuge in the unique little York bookshop where she works.

Everything is about to change for Loveday. Someone knows about her past. Someone is trying to send her a message. And she can't hide any longer.

Lost for Words is a compelling, irresistible and heart-rending novel, with the emotional intensity of The Shock of the Fall and all the charm of The Little Paris Bookshop and 84 Charing Cross Road.]]> 352 Stephanie Butland 1785762591 Mary 0 3.95 2017 Lost For Words
author: Stephanie Butland
name: Mary
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/12
shelves: to-read, library-available, recommended
review:

]]> The Glass Town Game 26810460 A Parents� Choice Gold Award Winner

“Dazzling.� �Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Charlotte and Emily Brontë enter a fantasy world that they invented in order to rescue their siblings in this “lovely, fanciful� (Booklist, starred review) novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Inside a small Yorkshire parsonage, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne Brontë have invented a game called Glass Town, where their toy soldiers fight Napoleon and no one dies. This make-believe land helps the four escape from a harsh Charlotte and Emily are being sent away to a dangerous boarding school. But then something incredible a train whisks them all away to a real Glass Town, and the children trade the moors for a wonderland all their own.

This is their Glass Town…almost. Their Napoleon never rode into battle on a fire-breathing porcelain rooster. And the soldiers can die; wars are fought over a potion that raises the dead, a potion Anne would very much like to bring back to England. But returning is out of the question—Charlotte will never go back to that horrible school.

Together the Brontë siblings must battle their own imaginations in this magical celebration of authorship, creativity, and classic literature from award-winning author Catherynne M. Valente.]]> 544 Catherynne M. Valente 148147698X Mary 0 3.67 2017 The Glass Town Game
author: Catherynne M. Valente
name: Mary
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/12
shelves: to-read, library-available, fantasy, recommended
review:

]]> The Cover Wife 41448838
The new high-stakes spy thriller from a master of the genre transports the reader to Paris and Hamburg, and deep into the conspiracy behind the 9/11 attacks. Paris, October 1999. CIA agent Claire Saylor is looking after low-level surveillance ops.

Her career has stalled after a misguided dalliance with her handler Paul Bridger - so when Bridger asks Claire to join a team, she prepares herself for a stint on tea duties.

But in fact, he's finally put her back in the game. She'll be going undercover as the wife of Professor Winston Armitage - an expert in the Quran and its translations.

He's presenting his controversial new theory on the fabled promise of 72 virgins for each martyr, and needs protection. But when Claire arrives in Hamburg, it soon becomes clear that this is no routine protection job: she's there to uncover a conspiracy that will lead to the 9/11 terror attacks. And if she blows her cover, she could lose her life...]]> 440 Dan Fesperman 178854790X Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.54 2021 The Cover Wife
author: Dan Fesperman
name: Mary
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/03
shelves: to-read, library-available
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Widows of Malabar Hill (Perveen Mistry, #1)]]> 35133064
Mistry Law is handling the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen goes through the papers, she notices something strange: all three have signed over their inheritance to a charity. What will they live on if they forefeit what their husband left them? Perveen is suspicious.

The Farid widows live in purdah: strict seclusion, never leaving the women's quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate and realizes her instincts about the will were correct when tensions escalate to murder. It's her responsibility to figure out what really happened on Malabar Hill, and to ensure that nobody is in further danger.]]> 385 Sujata Massey 1616957786 Mary 3 The story is set in Bombay in 1921, with flashbacks to 1916. Bombay is a city of great complexity, especially in its religious communities. Our lead character, Perveen Mistry, is Parsi (Zoroastrian) and the first woman solicitor in Bombay. She has trained at Oxford and works for her father, a successful solicitor. He gives her a case to work on--figuring out the legacy due to three widows of a Muslim manufacturer who has died. These widows, the ones of the title, live in seclusion in a house with their children. Perveen comes to think from reading the legal papers that the man who is caring for the estate is taking advantage of the women's lack of knowledge of the world. As a woman, she is able to enter their quarters. When the estate manager is found brutally murdered, Perveen has access to clues that the police do not. But will this put her life in danger?
There were things I like about the book--the descriptions of food, the sense of the world of women in purdah, and the sense of a changing, complicated world. But there are problems that kept the book from really grabbing and keeping my attention. The flashbacks to Perveen's unsuccessful marriage should have been drastically cut and woven in only as background info. The character of her English friend Alice is just unbelievable and mostly extraneous to the story. Perveen's father is more interesting and I hope that Ms. Massey increases his presence in future books. Too many times the characters fail to take the most logical step or ask the follow-up question. That may work for dragging a story out, but it detracts from a crime novel. The last 80 pages, which should have been the most exciting as the killer is revealed, were slow and dull. The book could easily have been cut by 80-100 pages.
I am not sure if I will try any more books in the series.]]> 3.88 2018 The Widows of Malabar Hill (Perveen Mistry, #1)
author: Sujata Massey
name: Mary
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/30
date added: 2022/06/30
shelves: library-available, 2022-reading-challenge, historical-mystery, mystery
review:
I read The Widows of Malabar Hill for a world book challenge I am following. This month's challenge was to read a book set in southeast Asia. Since I love books about India and mysteries, this seemed like a good choice. It has received much praise and is the start of a mystery series. Alas, it fell flat for me.
The story is set in Bombay in 1921, with flashbacks to 1916. Bombay is a city of great complexity, especially in its religious communities. Our lead character, Perveen Mistry, is Parsi (Zoroastrian) and the first woman solicitor in Bombay. She has trained at Oxford and works for her father, a successful solicitor. He gives her a case to work on--figuring out the legacy due to three widows of a Muslim manufacturer who has died. These widows, the ones of the title, live in seclusion in a house with their children. Perveen comes to think from reading the legal papers that the man who is caring for the estate is taking advantage of the women's lack of knowledge of the world. As a woman, she is able to enter their quarters. When the estate manager is found brutally murdered, Perveen has access to clues that the police do not. But will this put her life in danger?
There were things I like about the book--the descriptions of food, the sense of the world of women in purdah, and the sense of a changing, complicated world. But there are problems that kept the book from really grabbing and keeping my attention. The flashbacks to Perveen's unsuccessful marriage should have been drastically cut and woven in only as background info. The character of her English friend Alice is just unbelievable and mostly extraneous to the story. Perveen's father is more interesting and I hope that Ms. Massey increases his presence in future books. Too many times the characters fail to take the most logical step or ask the follow-up question. That may work for dragging a story out, but it detracts from a crime novel. The last 80 pages, which should have been the most exciting as the killer is revealed, were slow and dull. The book could easily have been cut by 80-100 pages.
I am not sure if I will try any more books in the series.
]]> Meet Me at the Museum 40381390
When Anders Larsen, a lonely museum curator, answers it, neither does he.

They're both searching for something - they just don't know it yet.

Anders has lost his wife, along with his hopes and dreams for the future. Tina is trapped in a marriage she doesn't remember choosing.

Slowly their correspondence blossoms as they bare their souls to each other with stories of joy, anguish and discovery. But then Tina's letters suddenly cease, and Anders is thrown into despair.

Can their unexpected friendship survive?

A deep and luminous novel of self-discovery and second chances, MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM is a heartbreaking celebration of love, life and the surprises it throws at us. In a story that is at once urgent and tender, Anne Youngson polishes the everyday until it gleams. ]]> 285 Anne Youngson 1250295173 Mary 4 The novel is thoughtful and at times philosophic as Tina and Anders explore their life journeys, encouraging and challenging each other. It stretches credulity that the two would carry on such a deep correspondence in this day and age. They do move from physical letters to emails, but these are very long letters. I enjoyed it most when each character tried to explain to the other about daily life, whether it is plucking chickens for Christmas or working in the museum.
Recommended.

]]> 3.95 2018 Meet Me at the Museum
author: Anne Youngson
name: Mary
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/25
date added: 2021/02/25
shelves: library-available, 2021-reading-challenge, fiction, epistolary-novel
review:
An enjoyable epistolary novel. The two characters, Tina and Anders, have never met. Tina, a farm wife in England, has sent a letter to an author at a museum in Denmark. Since the author has passed away, Anders, a museum curator, answers her letter. Gingerly, the two correspondents continue writing to each other. Gradually they reveal their lives to each other--their hopes, dreams, and despair. They find that their individual loneliness is somewhat more bearable when shared with a sympathetic soul. Over the course of a year and a half, we observe a wedding, a pregnancy, journeys, and a life-changing tear in Tina's marriage. The last portion of the novel has a more intense feel to it. Will Tina and Anders ever meet? The author leaves that up to us.
The novel is thoughtful and at times philosophic as Tina and Anders explore their life journeys, encouraging and challenging each other. It stretches credulity that the two would carry on such a deep correspondence in this day and age. They do move from physical letters to emails, but these are very long letters. I enjoyed it most when each character tried to explain to the other about daily life, whether it is plucking chickens for Christmas or working in the museum.
Recommended.


]]> Munich 33539583 From the internationally best-selling author of Fatherland and the Cicero Trilogy--a new spy thriller about treason and conscience, loyalty and betrayal, set against the backdrop of the fateful Munich Conference of September, 1938.

Guy Legat is a rising star of the British diplomatic service, serving in 10 Downing Street as a private secretary to the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Rikard von Holz is on the staff of the German Foreign Office--and secretly a member of the anti-Hitler resistance. The two men were friends at Oxford in the 1920s, but have not been in contact since. Now, when Guy flies with Chamberlain from London to Munich, and Rikard travels on Hitler's train overnight from Berlin, their paths are set on a disastrous collision course. And once again, Robert Harris gives us actual events of historical importance--here are Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, Daladier--at the heart of an electrifying, un-put-downable novel.]]> 352 Robert Harris 1473519691 Mary 4 'Munich' tells the story up close and personal of the crisis and negotiations surrounding Germany's claim to the Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, in September 1938. Most often viewed with 20/20 hindsight as a disaster of appeasement by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Robert Harris gives it the in-depth examination and reconsideration that it deserves. Whether things might have turned out better, or worse, if Britain and France had been firmer with Hitler will never be known.

Without a lot of preamble, Harris throws the reader into the midst of the political crisis that was caused by Germany trying to expand its territorial claims into Czechoslovakia, after it had recently taken over Austria. Hugh Legat is a Foreign Officer serving as an undersecretary in the office of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He is used mainly as a flunky, but his fluency in German makes him useful in the crisis for translating Hitler's speeches and other documents. A counterpart in Germany is Paul von Hartmann,also in the diplomatic corps, but very unhappy with Hitler and the Nazis. Paul and Hugh had been friends at Oxford several years before, but they have lost contact with each other. Paul and his fellow conspirators decide to use the Munich Conference as an opportunity to make contact with the British diplomats and share some incriminating documents.

The story starts slowly, with lots of scenes of inter-office political backbiting, but finally takes off about half way through the book when all the parties are present in Munich. Will Paul be able to contact Hugh, who is being used as a go-fer at the hotel rather than a translator at the conference? Will Paul's treachery be found out by the Gestapo? Will Hugh be able to make his superiors listen to him before it is too late and Chamberlain and Hitler have signed the agreement?
The personal lives of the young diplomats give the human touch to what is often seen as just political theatre. The Munich Conference had real consequences, delaying Germany's war plans by almost a year, allowing both sides to build up their armaments. Chamberlain, who sometimes seems like a Victorian gentleman stranded in the wrong century, comes across as an earnest, sincere, and flawed character. Hitler, who drifts in out of the conference like a ghost, comes across as a withdrawn, but demanding, narcissist.
Robert Harris is thorough in showing what is at stake in this crucial time. His writing can be a bit stilted and stiff, like his characters. If you are interested in learning about the time before World War II, this novel is a very good depiction of a time gone by. It also provides some interesting, and worrisome, parallels to our own time.

]]> 3.77 2017 Munich
author: Robert Harris
name: Mary
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/07
date added: 2020/07/07
shelves: library-available, 2020-reading-challenge, historical-fiction
review:
Just a smidgeon under 4 stars.
'Munich' tells the story up close and personal of the crisis and negotiations surrounding Germany's claim to the Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, in September 1938. Most often viewed with 20/20 hindsight as a disaster of appeasement by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Robert Harris gives it the in-depth examination and reconsideration that it deserves. Whether things might have turned out better, or worse, if Britain and France had been firmer with Hitler will never be known.

Without a lot of preamble, Harris throws the reader into the midst of the political crisis that was caused by Germany trying to expand its territorial claims into Czechoslovakia, after it had recently taken over Austria. Hugh Legat is a Foreign Officer serving as an undersecretary in the office of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He is used mainly as a flunky, but his fluency in German makes him useful in the crisis for translating Hitler's speeches and other documents. A counterpart in Germany is Paul von Hartmann,also in the diplomatic corps, but very unhappy with Hitler and the Nazis. Paul and Hugh had been friends at Oxford several years before, but they have lost contact with each other. Paul and his fellow conspirators decide to use the Munich Conference as an opportunity to make contact with the British diplomats and share some incriminating documents.

The story starts slowly, with lots of scenes of inter-office political backbiting, but finally takes off about half way through the book when all the parties are present in Munich. Will Paul be able to contact Hugh, who is being used as a go-fer at the hotel rather than a translator at the conference? Will Paul's treachery be found out by the Gestapo? Will Hugh be able to make his superiors listen to him before it is too late and Chamberlain and Hitler have signed the agreement?
The personal lives of the young diplomats give the human touch to what is often seen as just political theatre. The Munich Conference had real consequences, delaying Germany's war plans by almost a year, allowing both sides to build up their armaments. Chamberlain, who sometimes seems like a Victorian gentleman stranded in the wrong century, comes across as an earnest, sincere, and flawed character. Hitler, who drifts in out of the conference like a ghost, comes across as a withdrawn, but demanding, narcissist.
Robert Harris is thorough in showing what is at stake in this crucial time. His writing can be a bit stilted and stiff, like his characters. If you are interested in learning about the time before World War II, this novel is a very good depiction of a time gone by. It also provides some interesting, and worrisome, parallels to our own time.


]]> The Map of Salt and Stars 36373417
Novecientos años atrás, Rawiya, otra joven de dieciséis años, emprende también un viaje en busca de fortuna que la lleva a través del mundo junto a un cartógrafo decidido a crear un mapamundi.]]> 360 Zeyn Joukhadar 1501169033 Mary 0 3.90 2018 The Map of Salt and Stars
author: Zeyn Joukhadar
name: Mary
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/09
shelves: to-read, library-available, potential-book-club
review:

]]> The Tuscan Child 36097619 A novel about a woman who braves her father’s hidden past to discover his secrets�

In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal.

Nearly thirty years later, Hugo’s estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father’s funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.

Still dealing with the emotional wounds of her own personal trauma, Joanna embarks on a healing journey to Tuscany to understand her father’s history—and maybe come to understand herself as well. Joanna soon discovers that some would prefer the past be left undisturbed, but she has come too far to let go of her father’s secrets now…]]> 336 Rhys Bowen 1503951820 Mary 2 As with many recent historical fiction stories, 'The Tuscan Child' is a dual narrative, set in 1944 and 1973. It starts off very promisingly, with the exciting wartime drama of Hugo Langley, an RAF pilot who bails from his plane over Tuscany in December 1944. He is wounded and behind enemy lines. When he is rescued by a young Italian woman who hides and feeds him, there is an element of suspense and romance. Then we cut to 1973, when we meet Hugo's daughter Joanna, who is returning to her old home when her father is found dead. What has happened to Hugo in the intervening years? When Joanna finds a mysterious letter to an unknown woman among his belongings, she feels that she must find out more about her father's past. So Joanna leaves her disappointing life in London to go to the small village in Tuscany where her father was rescued. Nobody seems to know anything about her father, but Joanna senses an uneasiness among the villagers. When a village man is killed and stuffed into the well next to the room she is renting, Joanna is sure that it is connected somehow to the mystery surrounding her father. And then she finds a letter from the murdered man. This is where the story went off the rails for me.
Joanna, a lawyer-in-training, decides to hide the letter from the police. Everything from this point on becomes more and more improbable. Even Hugo's tale becomes strained. By the end of the story, I was barely interested in how the author was going to tie up loose ends. Coincidence and foolish behavior abound. Some may find this romantic. I found it irritating.
]]> 3.67 2018 The Tuscan Child
author: Rhys Bowen
name: Mary
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2019/06/12
date added: 2019/07/06
shelves: library-available, historical-fiction, kindle, 2019-reading-challenge
review:
'The Tuscan Child' was recommended by several book review sites. But when I read the reviews, I wonder if we read the same book. It is the first book by Rhys Bowen that I have read, so I don't know how it compares with her other works.
As with many recent historical fiction stories, 'The Tuscan Child' is a dual narrative, set in 1944 and 1973. It starts off very promisingly, with the exciting wartime drama of Hugo Langley, an RAF pilot who bails from his plane over Tuscany in December 1944. He is wounded and behind enemy lines. When he is rescued by a young Italian woman who hides and feeds him, there is an element of suspense and romance. Then we cut to 1973, when we meet Hugo's daughter Joanna, who is returning to her old home when her father is found dead. What has happened to Hugo in the intervening years? When Joanna finds a mysterious letter to an unknown woman among his belongings, she feels that she must find out more about her father's past. So Joanna leaves her disappointing life in London to go to the small village in Tuscany where her father was rescued. Nobody seems to know anything about her father, but Joanna senses an uneasiness among the villagers. When a village man is killed and stuffed into the well next to the room she is renting, Joanna is sure that it is connected somehow to the mystery surrounding her father. And then she finds a letter from the murdered man. This is where the story went off the rails for me.
Joanna, a lawyer-in-training, decides to hide the letter from the police. Everything from this point on becomes more and more improbable. Even Hugo's tale becomes strained. By the end of the story, I was barely interested in how the author was going to tie up loose ends. Coincidence and foolish behavior abound. Some may find this romantic. I found it irritating.

]]> Our Homesick Songs 36373586 Etta and Otto and Russell and James, a People magazine “Pick of the Week,� comes a lyrical, charming, and mystical story of a family on the edge of extinction, and the different way each of them fights to keep hope, memory, and love alive.

The Connor family is one of the few that is still left in their idyllic fishing village, Big Running; after the fish mysteriously disappeared, most families had no choice but to relocate and find work elsewhere. Aidan and Martha Connor now spend alternate months of the year working at an energy site up north to support their children, Cora and Finn. But soon the family fears they’ll have to leave Big Running for good. And as the months go on, plagued by romantic temptations new and old, the emotional distance between the once blissful Aidan and Martha only widens.

Between his accordion lessons and reading up on Big Running’s local flora and fauna, eleven-year-old Finn Connor develops an obsession with solving the mystery of the missing fish. Aided by his reclusive music instructor Mrs. Callaghan, Finn thinks he may have discovered a way to find the fish, and in turn, save the only home he’s ever known. While Finn schemes, his sister Cora spends her days decorating the abandoned houses in Big Running with global flair—the baker’s home becomes Italy; the mailman’s, Britain. But it’s clear she’s desperate for a bigger life beyond the shores of her small town. As the streets of Big Running continue to empty Cora takes matters—and her family’s shared destinies—into her own hands.

In Our Homesick Songs, Emma Hooper paints a gorgeous portrait of the Connor family, brilliantly weaving together four different stories and two generations of Connors, full of wonder and hope. Told in Hooper’s signature ethereal style, each page of this incandescent novel glows with mythical, musical wonder.]]> 326 Emma Hooper 150112448X Mary 0 4.02 2018 Our Homesick Songs
author: Emma Hooper
name: Mary
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/30
shelves: to-read, library-available, nancy-pearl-recommendation
review:

]]> The Boat People 34128675
Told through the alternating perspectives of Mahindan; his lawyer, Priya, a second-generation Sri Lankan Canadian who reluctantly represents the refugees; and Grace, a third-generation Japanese Canadian adjudicator who must decide Mahindan's fate as evidence mounts against him, The Boat People is a spellbinding and timely novel that provokes a deeply compassionate lens through which to view the current refugee crisis.]]> 352 Sharon Bala Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.97 2018 The Boat People
author: Sharon Bala
name: Mary
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/11/28
shelves: to-read, library-available
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mortal Word (The Invisible Library, #5)]]> 31690153 A spy in danger
And an assassin at large

The fifth title in Genevieve Cogman's witty and wonderful Invisible Library series, The Mortal Word is a rollicking literary adventure.

Peace talks are always tricky, especially when a key diplomat gets stabbed. This rudely interrupts a top-secret summit between the warring dragons and Fae. As a neutral party, Librarian-spy Irene is summoned to investigate. She must head to a version of 1890s Paris, with her assistant Kai and her detective friend Vale, where these talks are fracturing. Here, she must get to the bottom of the attack � before either the peace negotiations or the city go up in flames.

Suspicions fly thick and fast and Irene soon finds herself in the seedy depths of the Parisian underworld. She’s on the trail of a notoriously warlike Fae, the Blood Countess. However, the evidence against the Countess is circumstantial. Could the killer be a member of the Library itself?]]> 433 Genevieve Cogman Mary 0 4.15 2018 The Mortal Word (The Invisible Library, #5)
author: Genevieve Cogman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/11/28
shelves: to-read, possible-gift, library-available
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy (Montague Siblings, #2)]]> 37880094
But then a window of opportunity opens—a doctor she idolizes is marrying an old friend of hers in Germany. Felicity believes if she could meet this man he could change her future, but she has no money of her own to make the trip. Luckily, a mysterious young woman is willing to pay Felicity’s way, so long as she’s allowed to travel with Felicity disguised as her maid.

In spite of her suspicions, Felicity agrees, but once the girl’s true motives are revealed, Felicity becomes part of a perilous quest that leads them from the German countryside to the promenades of Zurich to secrets lurking beneath the Atlantic.

In this highly anticipated sequel to theĚýNew York TimesĚý˛ú±đ˛őłŮ˛ő±đ±ô±ôľ±˛Ô˛µĚýThe Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, Felicity Montague must use all her womanly wits and wiles to achieve her dreams of becoming a doctor—even if she has to scheme her way across Europe to do it. A must-have for fans of Mackenzi Lee’s extraordinary and Stonewall Honor-winning novel.]]> 450 Mackenzi Lee 0062795325 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.05 2018 The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy (Montague Siblings, #2)
author: Mackenzi Lee
name: Mary
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/10/04
shelves: to-read, library-available
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History]]> 37488430 The untold story of five women who fought to compete against men in the high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s � and won
Ěý
Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi‑day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were hailed. Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly, and deadly, pursuit. Fly Girls recounts how a cadre of women banded together to break the original glass ceiling: the entrenched prejudice that conspired to keep them out of the sky.

O’Brien weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high‑school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcee; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at the constraints of her blue‑blood family’s expectations; and Louise Thaden, the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to race against the men � and in 1936 one of them would triumph in the toughest race of all.
Ěý
Like Hidden Figures and Girls of Atomic City, Fly Girls celebrates a little-known slice of history in which tenacious, trail-blazing women braved all obstacles to achieve greatness.]]> 352 Keith O'Brien 1328876640 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.89 2018 Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History
author: Keith O'Brien
name: Mary
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road]]> 31146782 you are different, woken up in new ways by the mile."

As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she most craved--that of a generalist explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and philosopher--had gone extinct. From her small-town home in Ontario, it seemed as if Marco Polo, Magellan and their like had long ago mapped the whole earth. So she vowed to become a scientist and go to Mars.
To pass the time before she could launch into outer space, Kate set off by bicycle down a short section of the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel Yule, then settled down to study at Oxford and MIT. Eventually the truth dawned on her: an explorer, in any day and age, is by definition the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. And Harris had soared most fully out of bounds right here on Earth, travelling a bygone trading route on her bicycle. So she quit the laboratory and hit the Silk Road again with Mel, this time determined to bike it from the beginning to end.
Like Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer before her, Kate Harris offers a travel narrative at once exuberant and meditative, wry and rapturous. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of a world that, like the self and like the stars, can never be fully mapped.]]> 320 Kate Harris 0345816773 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.98 2018 Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road
author: Kate Harris
name: Mary
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> The Shakespeare Requirement 38885815 A Washington Post notable book of the year.

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune keep hitting beleaguered English professor Jason Fitger right between the eyes in this hilarious and eagerly awaited sequel to the cult classic of anhedonic academe, the Thurber Prize-winning Dear Committee Members.

Once more into the breach...

Now is the fall of his discontent, as Jason Fitger, newly appointed chair of the English Department of Payne University, takes arms against a sea of troubles, personal and institutional. His ex-wife is sleeping with the dean who must approve whatever modest initiatives he undertakes. The fearsome department secretary Fran clearly runs the show (when not taking in rescue parrots and dogs) and holds plenty of secrets she's not sharing. The lavishly funded Econ Department keeps siphoning off English's meager resources and has taken aim at its remaining office space. And Fitger's attempt to get a mossbacked and antediluvian Shakespeare scholar to retire backfires spectacularly when the press concludes that the Bard is being kicked to the curricular curb.

Lord, what fools these mortals be! Julie Schumacher proves the point and makes the most of it in this delicious romp of satire.

Don't miss Julie Schumacher's new novel, The English Experience, coming soon.]]> 312 Julie Schumacher 0385542356 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.74 2018 The Shakespeare Requirement
author: Julie Schumacher
name: Mary
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Death in Cold Water (A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery)]]> 29936759 ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý As tourists flood the peninsula for the fall colors, Sheriff Dave Cubiak’s search for Sneider is stymied by the FBI. When human bones wash up on the Lake Michigan shore, the sheriff has more than a missing man to worry about. With the media demanding answers and two puzzles to solve, Cubiak must follow his instincts down a trail of half-remembered rumors and local history to discover the shocking truth.]]> 242 Patricia Skalka 0299309207 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.94 Death in Cold Water (A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery)
author: Patricia Skalka
name: Mary
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> The Heart's Invisible Furies 33253215 real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.

At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from � and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.

In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.]]> 582 John Boyne Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.51 2017 The Heart's Invisible Furies
author: John Boyne
name: Mary
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> The Butcher's Daughter 36361421 The Butcher’s Daughter, it is this milieu that mandates Agnes Peppin, daughter of a simple country butcher, to leave her family home in disgrace and live out her days cloistered behind the walls of the Shaftesbury Abbey. But with her great intellect, she becomes the assistant to the Abbess and as a result integrates herself into the unstable royal landscape of King Henry VIII.

As Agnes grapples with the complex rules and hierarchies of her new life, King Henry VIII has proclaimed himself the new head of the Church. Religious houses are being formally subjugated and monasteries dissolved, and the great Abbey is no exception to the purge. The cosseted world in which Agnes has carved out for herself a sliver of liberty is shattered. Now, free at last to be the master of her own fate, she descends into a world she knows little about, using her wits and testing her moral convictions against her need to survive by any means necessary . . .

The Butcher’s Daughter is the riveting story of a young woman facing head-on the obstacles carefully constructed against her sex. This dark and affecting novel by award-winning author Victoria Glendinning intricately depicts the lives of women in the sixteenth century in a world dominated by men, perfect for fans of Wolf Hall and Philippa Gregory.Ěý]]> 352 Victoria Glendinning 1468316338 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.56 2018 The Butcher's Daughter
author: Victoria Glendinning
name: Mary
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Dinner at the Center of the Earth (Vintage International)]]> 39947357 For the Relief of Unbearable Urges--a political thriller set against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the Negev desert, a nameless prisoner languishes in a secret cell, his only companion the guard who has watched over him for a dozen years. Meanwhile, the prisoner's arch nemesis--The General, Israel's most controversial leader--lies dying in a hospital bed. From Israel and Gaza to Paris, Italy, and America, Englander provides a kaleidoscopic view of the prisoner's unlikely journey to his cell. Dinner at the Center of the Earth is a tour de force--a powerful, wryly funny, intensely suspenseful portrait of a nation riven by insoluble conflict, and the man who improbably lands at the center of it all.]]> 272 Nathan Englander 0525434046 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.86 2017 Dinner at the Center of the Earth (Vintage International)
author: Nathan Englander
name: Mary
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, #1)]]> 243353
When the body of the wife of a prominent politician comes through his morgue, Siri has reason to suspect the woman has been murdered. To get to the truth, Siri and his team face government secrets, spying neighbors, victim hauntings, Hmong shamans, botched romances, and other deadly dangers. Somehow, Siri must figure out a way to balance the will of the party and the will of the dead.]]> 257 Colin Cotterill 1569474184 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.96 2004 The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, #1)
author: Colin Cotterill
name: Mary
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> The Garden of Evening Mists 12031532 448 Tan Twan Eng 1905802498 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.11 2011 The Garden of Evening Mists
author: Tan Twan Eng
name: Mary
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Days Without End (Days Without End, #1)]]> 30212107
Moving from the plains of Wyoming to Tennessee, Sebastian Barry’s latest work is a masterpiece of atmosphere and language. An intensely poignant story of two men and the makeshift family they create with a young Sioux girl, Winona, Days Without End is a fresh and haunting portrait of the most fateful years in American history and is a novel never to be forgotten.]]> 259 Sebastian Barry 0525427368 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.93 2016 Days Without End (Days Without End, #1)
author: Sebastian Barry
name: Mary
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> Secrets of a Charmed Life 22544024 The author of A Bridge Across the Ocean and The Last Year of the War journeys from the present day to World War II England, as two sisters are separated by the chaos of wartime...

Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden—one that will test her convictions and her heart.

1940s, England. As Hitler wages an unprecedented war against London’s civilian population, hundreds of thousands of children are evacuated to foster homes in the rural countryside. But even as fifteen-year-old Emmy Downtree and her much younger sister Julia find refuge in a charming Cotswold cottage, Emmy’s burning ambition to return to the city and apprentice with a fashion designer pits her against Julia’s profound need for her sister’s presence. Acting at cross purposes just as the Luftwaffe rains down its terrible destruction, the sisters are cruelly separated, and their lives are transformed...]]> 386 Susan Meissner Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.21 2015 Secrets of a Charmed Life
author: Susan Meissner
name: Mary
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> Exit West 30688435
Exit West follows these characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.]]> 231 Mohsin Hamid 0735212171 Mary 0 3.74 2017 Exit West
author: Mohsin Hamid
name: Mary
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> The Awakening of Miss Prim 18774984
When Miss Prim, an independent, accomplished young woman, reads an ad in the newspaper seeking a feminine spirit to work as a librarian in the lush countryside of France, she finds herself compelled to apply. Little does she know what kind of world she is about to step into.
Miss Prim dutifully accepts the job and begins organizing her employer's vast library. A knowledgeable, mysterious gentleman with very specific opinions about life, he challenges Miss Prim's seemingly unshakeable disposition. And as she becomes familiar with the other townspeople, she begins to realize that the surprising lifestyle of the town awakens amazement, perplexity, and even disdain in her. For in this tiny corner of the world, a flourishing colony of exiles have settled into a simple, rural existence, living around great literature, intellectual discussions, family, and sweet indulgences. Their peculiar and unconventional ways slowly test Miss Prim's most intimate ideas and fears as well as her most profound convictions. She quickly comes to realize that her advanced degrees did little to prepare her for the lessons she's being taught the least of which is a lesson in love.

Set against a backdrop of steaming cups of tea, freshly baked cakes, warm fires, and lovely company, The Awakening of Miss Prim is a delightful, thought-provoking, and sensitive novel that gives rise to theories about love and companionship, education, and the beauty of every passing moment.]]> 259 Natalia SanmartĂ­n Fenollera 1476734240 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.65 2013 The Awakening of Miss Prim
author: Natalia SanmartĂ­n Fenollera
name: Mary
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> The Peshawar Lancers 179021 496 S.M. Stirling 0451458737 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.84 2002 The Peshawar Lancers
author: S.M. Stirling
name: Mary
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sisters of the Winter Wood]]> 37946441 "There are many types of love. But there is nothing like a sister."

In a remote village surrounded by vast forests on the border of Moldova and Ukraine, sisters Liba and Laya have been raised on the honeyed scent of their Mami's babka and the low rumble of their Tati's prayers. But when a troupe of mysterious men arrives, Laya falls under their spell—despite her mother's warning to be wary of strangers. And this is not the only danger lurking in the woods.

As dark forces close in on their village, Liba and Laya discover a family secret passed down through generations. Faced with a magical heritage they never knew existed, the sisters realize the old fairy tales are true...and could save them all.]]> 429 Rena Rossner Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.55 2018 The Sisters of the Winter Wood
author: Rena Rossner
name: Mary
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> The Library at Mount Char 26892110
After all, she was a normal American herself, once.

That was a long time ago, of course—before the time she calls “adoption day,� when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.

Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.

In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power.

Sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.

Now, Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that matters is who will inherit his library—and with it, power over all of creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her.

But Carolyn can win. She's sure of it. What she doesn't realize is that her victory may come at an unacceptable price—because in becoming a God, she's forgotten a great deal about being human.]]> 390 Scott Hawkins 0553418629 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.06 2015 The Library at Mount Char
author: Scott Hawkins
name: Mary
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World]]> 35887237 The author of the acclaimed Proust and the Squid follows up with a lively, ambitious, and deeply informative book that considers the future of the reading brain and our capacity for critical thinking, empathy, and reflection as we become increasingly dependent on digital technologies.


A decade ago, Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid revealed what we know about how the brain learns to read and how reading changes the way we think and feel. Since then, the ways we process written language have changed dramatically with many concerned about both their own changes and that of children. New research on the reading brain chronicles these changes in the brains of children and adults as they learn to read while immersed in a digitally dominated medium.

Drawing deeply on this research, this book comprises a series of letters Wolf writes to us—her beloved readers—to describe her concerns and her hopes about what is happening to the reading brain as it unavoidably changes to adapt to digital mediums. Wolf raises difficult questions, including:


Will children learn to incorporate the full range of "deep reading" processes that are at the core of the expert reading brain?
Will the mix of a seemingly infinite set of distractions for children’s attention and their quick access to immediate, voluminous information alter their ability to think for themselves?
With information at their fingertips, will the next generation learn to build their own storehouse of knowledge, which could impede the ability to make analogies and draw inferences from what they know?
Will all these influences, in turn, change the formation in children and the use in adults of "slower" cognitive processes like critical thinking, personal reflection, imagination, and empathy that comprise deep reading and that influence both how we think and how we live our lives?
Will the chain of digital influences ultimately influence the use of the critical analytical and empathic capacities necessary for a democratic society?
How can we preserve deep reading processes in future iterations of the reading brain?
Who are the "good readers" of every epoch?
Concerns about attention span, critical reasoning, and over-reliance on technology are never just about children—Wolf herself has found that, though she is a reading expert, her ability to read deeply has been impacted as she has become, inevitably, increasingly dependent on screens.

Wolf draws on neuroscience, literature, education, technology, and philosophy and blends historical, literary, and scientific facts with down-to-earth examples and warm anecdotes to illuminate complex ideas that culminate in a proposal for a biliterate reading brain. Provocative and intriguing, Reader, Come Home is a roadmap that provides a cautionary but hopeful perspective on the impact of technology on our brains and our most essential intellectual capacities—and what this could mean for our future.]]> 272 Maryanne Wolf 0062388797 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.88 2018 Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World
author: Maryanne Wolf
name: Mary
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> The Reservoir Tapes 37865948 The Reservoir Tapes returns to the extraordinary territory of Jon McGregor's Man Booker Prize-longlisted novel Reservoir 13, leading us deep into the heart of an English village that is trying to come to terms with what has happened on its watch.

A teenage girl has gone missing. The whole community has been called upon to join the search. And now an interviewer arrives, intent on capturing the community's unstable stories about life in the weeks and months before Becky Shaw vanished.

Each villager has a memory to share or a secret to conceal, a connection to Becky that they are trying to make or break. A young wife pushes against the boundaries of her marriage, and another seeks a means of surviving within hers. A group of teenagers dare one another to jump into a flooded quarry, the one weak swimmer still awaiting his turn. A laborer lies trapped under rocks and dry limestone dust as his fellow workers attempt a risky rescue. And meanwhile a fractured portrait of Becky emerges at the edges of our vision--a girl swimming, climbing, and smearing dirt onto a scared boy's face, images to be cherished and challenged as the search for her goes on.]]> 176 Jon McGregor 1936787911 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.64 2017 The Reservoir Tapes
author: Jon McGregor
name: Mary
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> Wolf Hollow (Wolf Hollow #1) 26026063
Growing up in the shadows cast by two world wars, Annabelle has lived a mostly quiet, steady life in her small Pennsylvania town. Until the day new student Betty Glengarry walks into her class. Betty quickly reveals herself to be cruel and manipulative, and while her bullying seems isolated at first, things quickly escalate, and reclusive World War I veteran Toby becomes a target of her attacks. While others have always seen Toby’s strangeness, Annabelle knows only kindness. She will soon need to find the courage to stand as a lone voice of justice as tensions mount.]]> 304 Lauren Wolk 1101994827 Mary 0 4.17 2016 Wolf Hollow (Wolf Hollow #1)
author: Lauren Wolk
name: Mary
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> Trouble the Water 37071930
Abby’s attempts to learn more about Douglas and his involvement in abolition initiate a circuitous dance of secrets and trust. As Abby and Douglas each attempt to manage their complicated interior lives, readers can’t help but hope that their meandering will lead them straight to each other. Set against the vivid backdrop of Charleston twenty years before the Civil War, Trouble the Water is a captivating tale replete with authentic details about Charleston’s aristocratic planter class, American slavery, and the Underground Railroad.]]> 341 Jacqueline Friedland 1943006547 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.68 2018 Trouble the Water
author: Jacqueline Friedland
name: Mary
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> <![CDATA[An Extraordinary Union (The Loyal League, #1)]]> 30237404 As the Civil War rages between the states, a courageous pair of spies plunge fearlessly into a maelstrom of ignorance, deceit, and danger, combining their unique skills to alter the course of history and break the chains of the past . . .


Elle Burns is a former slave with a passion for justice and an eidetic memory. Trading in her life of freedom in Massachusetts, she returns to the indignity of slavery in the South--to spy for the Union Army.


Malcolm McCall is a detective for Pinkerton's Secret Service. Subterfuge is his calling, but he's facing his deadliest mission yet--risking his life to infiltrate a Rebel enclave in Virginia.


Two undercover agents who share a common cause--and an undeniable attraction--Malcolm and Elle join forces when they discover a plot that could turn the tide of the war in the Confederacy's favor. Caught in a tightening web of wartime intrigue, and fighting a fiery and forbidden love, Malcolm and Elle must make their boldest move to preserve the Union at any cost--even if it means losing each other...]]> 258 Alyssa Cole 1496707443 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.79 2017 An Extraordinary Union (The Loyal League, #1)
author: Alyssa Cole
name: Mary
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The New York Times: Footsteps: From Ferrante's Naples to Hammett's San Francisco, Literary Pilgrimages Around the World]]> 32830167 A curated collection of the New York Times' travel column, "Footsteps," exploring iconic authors' relationships to landmarks and cities around the world

Before Nick Carraway was drawn into Daisy and Gatsby s sparkling, champagne-fueled world in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald vacationed in the French Riviera, where a small green lighthouse winked at ships on the horizon. Before the nameless lovers began their illicit affair in The Lover, Marguerite Duras embarked upon her own scandalous relationship amidst the urban streets of Saigon. And before readers were terrified by a tentacled dragon-man called Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft was enthralled by the Industrial Trust tower-- the 26-story skyscraper that makes up the skyline of Providence, Rhode Island.
Based on the popular New York Times travel column, Footsteps is an anthology of literary pilgrimages, exploring the geographic muses behind some of history's greatest writers. From the "dangerous, dirty and seductive" streets of Naples, the setting for Elena Ferrante's famous Neapolitan novels, to the "stone arches, creaky oaken doors, and riverside paths" of Oxford, the backdrop for Alice's adventures in Wonderland, Footsteps takes a fresh approach to literary tourism, appealing to readers and travel enthusiasts alike."]]> 292 The New York Times 0804189846 Mary 0 3.70 The New York Times: Footsteps: From Ferrante's Naples to Hammett's San Francisco, Literary Pilgrimages Around the World
author: The New York Times
name: Mary
average rating: 3.70
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The King and the Catholics: England, Ireland, and the Fight for Religious Freedom, 1780-1829]]> 39508562 From beloved historian Antonia Fraser comes the dramatic story of how Catholics in the United Kingdom won back their rights after two centuries of official discrimination.

In the summer of 1780, mob violence swept through London. Nearly one thousand people were killed, looting was widespread, and torch-bearing protestors marched on the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street. These were the Gordon Riots: the worst civil disturbance in British history, triggered by an act of Parliament designed to loosen two centuries of systemic oppression of Catholics in the British Isles. While many London Catholics saw their homes ransacked and chapels desecrated, the riots marked a crucial turning point in their fight to return to public life.
Over the next fifty years, factions battled one another to reform the laws of the land: wealthy English Catholics yearned to rejoin the political elite; the protestant aristocracy in Ireland feared an empowered Catholic populace; and the priesthood coveted old authority that royal decree had forbidden. Kings George III and George IV stubbornly refused to address the "Catholic Question" even when pressed by their prime ministers--governments fell over it--and events in America and Europe made many skeptical of disrupting the social order. But in 1829, through the dogged work of charismatic Irish lawyer Daniel O'Connell and with the support of the Duke of Wellington, the Roman Catholic Relief Act finally passed. It was a watershed moment, opening the door to future social reform and the radical transformation of the Victorian age.
The King and the Catholics is a gripping, character-driven example of narrative history at its best. It is also a distant mirror of our own times, reflecting the dire consequences of state-sanctioned intolerance and showing how collective action and the political process can triumph over wrongheaded legislation.]]> 336 Antonia Fraser 0385544529 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.53 2018 The King and the Catholics: England, Ireland, and the Fight for Religious Freedom, 1780-1829
author: Antonia Fraser
name: Mary
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> That Old Ace in the Hole 28002 A brilliant novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain. That Old Ace in the Hole is a richly textured story of one man's struggle to make good in the inhospitable ranch country of the Texas panhandle, told with razor-sharp wit and a masterly sense of place.]]> 384 Annie Proulx 0007151527 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.79 2002 That Old Ace in the Hole
author: Annie Proulx
name: Mary
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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review:

]]> The Last Days of Café Leila 30753991 304 Donia Bijan 1616205857 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.86 2017 The Last Days of Café Leila
author: Donia Bijan
name: Mary
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
shelves: to-read, library-available
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Vienna Waltz (Rannoch Fraser Mysteries #1)]]> 9341394 November 1814

Nothing is fair in love and war. . .

With Napoleon Bonaparte exiled to Elba, the elite of Europe have gathered at the glittering Congress of Vienna--princes, ambassadors, the Russian tsar--negotiating the fate of the Continent by day and flirting and waltzing by night. But on one of those candle-warmed evenings, Princess Tatiana, the most beautiful and talked about woman in Vienna, is found murdered during an ill-timed rendezvous with three of her most powerful conquests. . .

Suzanne Rannoch has tried to ignore rumors that her new husband, Malcolm, is also one of Tatiana's lovers. As a protégé of France's Prince Talleyrand and an attaché for Britain's Lord Castlereagh, Malcolm sets out to investigate the murder. He needs Suzanne's unique skills and knowledge if he is to succeed. The complex dance between husband and wife in the search for the truth tests their marriage, their liberty, and their very lives. No one's secrets are safe, and the future of Europe may hang in the balance. . .

]]> 436 Tracy Grant 0758254237 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.86 2011 Vienna Waltz (Rannoch Fraser Mysteries #1)
author: Tracy Grant
name: Mary
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Cartographer of No Man's Land]]> 18379037 Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award
A Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Fiction Finalist
A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection
An ABA/Indies Introduce Debut Dozen Selection The lauded masterpiece about a family divided by World War I, hailed as “brilliant . . . altogether a remarkable debut� (Simon Mawer, author of The Glass Room ). From a village in Nova Scotia to the trenches of France, P. S. Duffy’s astonishing debut showcases a rare talent emerging in midlife. When his beloved brother-in-law goes missing at the front in 1916, Angus defies his pacifist upbringing to join the war and find him. Assured a position as a cartographer in London, he is instead sent directly into battle. Meanwhile, at home, his son Simon Peter must navigate escalating hostility in a town torn by grief. Selected as both a Barnes & Noble Discover pick and one of the American Bookseller Association’s Debut Dozen, The Cartographer of No Man’s Land offers a soulful portrayal of World War I and the lives that were forever changed by it, both on the battlefield and at home.]]> 384 P.S. Duffy 0871407779 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.64 2013 The Cartographer of No Man's Land
author: P.S. Duffy
name: Mary
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/30
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[A City of Broken Glass (Hannah Vogel, #4)]]> 13167774 A City of Broken Glass, journalist Hannah Vogel is in Poland with her son Anton to cover the 1938 St. Martin festival when she hears that 12,000 Polish Jews have been deported from Germany. Hannah drops everything to get the story on the refugees, and walks directly into danger.

Kidnapped by the SS, and driven across the German border, Hannah is rescued by Anton and her lover, Lars Lang, who she had presumed dead two years before. Hannah doesn't know if she can trust Lars again, with her heart or with her life, but she has little choice. Injured in the escape attempt and wanted by the Gestapo, Hannah and Anton are trapped with Lars in Berlin. While Hannah works on an exit strategy, she helps to search for Ruth, the missing toddler of her Jewish friend Paul, who was disappeared during the deportation.

Trapped in Nazi Germany with her son just days before Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hannah knows the dangers of staying any longer than needed. But she can't turn her back on this one little girl, even if it plunges her and her family into danger.]]> 336 Rebecca Cantrell 0765327341 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.96 2012 A City of Broken Glass (Hannah Vogel, #4)
author: Rebecca Cantrell
name: Mary
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/09/30
shelves: to-read, library-available
review:

]]> Swimming Between Worlds 35732532 401 Elaine Neil Orr 0698406389 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.98 2018 Swimming Between Worlds
author: Elaine Neil Orr
name: Mary
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/09/30
shelves: to-read, library-available
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tess of the Road (Tess of the Road, #1)]]> 35046472 Meet Tess, a brave new heroine from beloved epic fantasy author Rachel Hartman.

In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons get to be whomever they want. Tess, stubbornly, is a troublemaker. You can’t make a scene at your sister’s wedding and break a relative’s nose with one punch (no matter how pompous he is) and not suffer the consequences. As her family plans to send her to a nunnery, Tess yanks on her boots and sets out on a journey across the Southlands, alone and pretending to be a boy.

Where Tess is headed is a mystery, even to her. So when she runs into an old friend, it’s a stroke of luck. This friend is a quigutl—a subspecies of dragon—who gives her both a purpose and protection on the road. But Tess is guarding a troubling secret. Her tumultuous past is a heavy burden to carry, and the memories she’s tried to forget threaten to expose her to the world in more ways than one.

Returning to the fascinating world she created in the award-winning and New York Times bestselling Seraphina, Rachel Hartman introduces readers to a new character and a new quest, pushing the boundaries of genre once again in this wholly original fantasy.]]> 544 Rachel Hartman 1101931280 Mary 0 3.88 2018 Tess of the Road (Tess of the Road, #1)
author: Rachel Hartman
name: Mary
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/07/31
shelves: to-read, library-available, young-adult-fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.33 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Mary
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/31
shelves: to-read, library-available
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]]> <![CDATA[Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers]]> 35210381 When her husband mysteriously disappears and rumors swirl about his loyalties, a mother must rely on the remarkable power of friendship in war-torn Hawaii

It’s 1944, combat in the Pacific is intensifying, and Violet Iverson and her daughter, Ella, are piecing their lives back together one year after her husband vanished. As suspicions about his loyalties surface, Violet suspects Ella knows something. But Ella refuses to talk. Something—or someone—has scared her.

Violet enjoys the camaraderie of her friends as they open a pie stand for the soldiers training on the island for a secret mission. But even these women face their own wartime challenges as prejudice against the island Japanese pits neighbor against neighbor. And then there’s the matter of Sergeant Stone, a brash marine who comes to Violet’s aid when the women are accused of spying. She struggles with her feelings of guilt but can’t deny the burning attraction—or her fear of losing another man when Stone ships out for Iwo Jima.

Set amid the tropical beauty of Hawaii, Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers offers a fresh perspective on World War II as it presents timeless depictions of female friendship, the bond between a mother and her child, and the enduring power of love even in the darkest times.]]> 394 Sara Ackerman 0778319210 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.80 2018 Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers
author: Sara Ackerman
name: Mary
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/31
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Policeman (The Last Policeman, #1)]]> 13330370
Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.� What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?]]> 316 Ben H. Winters 1594745765 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.75 2012 The Last Policeman (The Last Policeman, #1)
author: Ben H. Winters
name: Mary
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/31
shelves: to-read, library-available
review:

]]> Bellweather Rhapsody 18222740 340 Kate Racculia 0544129911 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.77 2014 Bellweather Rhapsody
author: Kate Racculia
name: Mary
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/31
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review:

]]> Blackfish City 35068768
“Simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder.� —Ann Leckie

A Best Book of the Month in

Entertainment Weekly

The Washington Post

Tor.com

B&N Sci-Fi Fantasy Blog

Amazon

After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle, a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering, complete with geothermal heating and sustainable energy.ĚýThe city’s denizens have become accustomed to a roughshod new way of living, however, the city is starting to fray along the edges—crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside direst poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called “the breaksâ€� is ravaging the population.

When a strange new visitor arrives—a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side—the city is entranced. The “orcamancer,â€� as she’s known, very subtly brings together four people—each living on the periphery—to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves.Ěý

Blackfish City is a remarkably urgent—and ultimately very hopeful—novel about political corruption, organized crime, technology run amok, the consequences of climate change, gender identity, and the unifying power of human connection.Ěý

Ěý]]> 336 Sam J. Miller 0062684841 Mary 0 3.54 2018 Blackfish City
author: Sam J. Miller
name: Mary
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/24
shelves: to-read, library-available, sci-fi
review:

]]> Seraphina (Seraphina, #1) 19549841 Librarian Note: Alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780375866562.

In her New York Times bestselling and Morris Award-winning debut, Rachel Hartman introduces mathematical dragons in an alternative-medieval world to fantasy and science-fiction readers of all ages.

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.]]> 499 Rachel Hartman Mary 0 3.91 2012 Seraphina (Seraphina, #1)
author: Rachel Hartman
name: Mary
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/05/24
shelves: to-read, library-available, young-adult-fantasy
review:

]]> Troll Fell (Troll, #1) 768424 272 Katherine Langrish 0060583045 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.67 2004 Troll Fell (Troll, #1)
author: Katherine Langrish
name: Mary
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/24
shelves: to-read, library-available
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Searcher of the Dead (A Bess Ellyott Mystery #1)]]> 36364743 Herbalist and widow Bess Ellyott tries to escape the loss of her husband in Elizabethan London only to find that death is following her, and she may very well be next in Searcher of the Dead, the first in a new historical mystery series by Nancy Herriman.

Living amid the cultural flowering, religious strife, and political storms of Tudor England, Bess Ellyott is an herbalist, a widow, and a hunted woman. She fled London after her husband was brutally murdered, but the bucolic town in the countryside where she lands will offer her no solace. She still doesn’t know who killed her husband, but she knows one thing: The murderer is still out there. This becomes all too clear when Bess’s brother-in-law, a prosperous merchant, is himself found dead—dangling from a tree, an apparent suicide.

But Bess doesn’t believe that for a moment, and nor do her neighbors. Competition is cutthroat in the 17th century, and word around the town holds that the dead man is a victim of rival merchants scheming to corner the wool market. Bess, though, is convinced the killer is out to destroy her family.

Town constable Christopher Harwoode will cross members of his own family to help Bess find the killer—whose next target may very well be Queen Elizabeth I—in this unshakably gripping, devilishly unpredictable series debut that will delight fans of Alison Weir and Philippa Gregory.]]> 330 Nancy Herriman 1683315383 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.62 2018 Searcher of the Dead (A Bess Ellyott Mystery #1)
author: Nancy Herriman
name: Mary
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/24
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review:

]]> Grief Cottage 31450969 The haunting tale of a desolate cottage, and the hair-thin junction between this life and the next, from bestselling National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin.

After his mother's death, eleven-year-old Marcus is sent to live on a small South Carolina island with his great aunt, a reclusive painter with a haunted past. Aunt Charlotte, otherwise a woman of few words, points out a ruined cottage, telling Marcus she had visited it regularly after she'd moved there thirty years ago because it matched the ruin of her own life. Eventually she was inspired to take up painting so she could capture its utter desolation.

The islanders call it "Grief Cottage," because a boy and his parents disappeared from it during a hurricane fifty years before. Their bodies were never found and the cottage has stood empty ever since. During his lonely hours while Aunt Charlotte is in her studio painting and keeping her demons at bay, Marcus visits the cottage daily, building up his courage by coming ever closer, even after the ghost of the boy who died seems to reveal himself. Full of curiosity and open to the unfamiliar and uncanny given the recent upending of his life, he courts the ghost boy, never certain whether the ghost is friendly or follows some sinister agenda.

Grief Cottage is the best sort of ghost story, but it is far more than that--an investigation of grief, remorse, and the memories that haunt us. The power and beauty of this artful novel wash over the reader like the waves on a South Carolina beach.]]> 336 Gail Godwin 1632867044 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.64 2017 Grief Cottage
author: Gail Godwin
name: Mary
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/24
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]]> The Kites 34390245

Filled with unforgettable characters—an indomitable chef who believes Michelin stars are more enduring than military conquests; a Jewish brothel Madam who reinvents everything about herself during the war; a piano virtuoso turned RAF pilot�The Kites is Romain Gary’s poetic call for resistance in whatever form it takes.]]> 384 Romain Gary 0811226549 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.25 1980 The Kites
author: Romain Gary
name: Mary
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/30
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]]> The Living Infinite 36791450 0 Chantel Acevedo 1538490102 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.45 2017 The Living Infinite
author: Chantel Acevedo
name: Mary
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/30
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Simple Faith of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Religion's Role in the FDR Presidency]]> 34013512 218 Christine Wicker 1588345246 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.14 The Simple Faith of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Religion's Role in the FDR Presidency
author: Christine Wicker
name: Mary
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> Modern Girls 25894024 A dazzling debut novel set in New York City’s Jewish immigrant community in 1935...
Ěý
How was it that out of all the girls in the office, I was the one to find myself in this situation? This didn’t happen to nice Jewish girls.
Ěý
In 1935, Dottie Krasinsky is the epitome of the modern girl. A bookkeeper in Midtown Manhattan, Dottie steals kisses from her steady beau, meets her girlfriends for drinks, and eyes the latest fashions. Yet at heart, she is a dutiful daughter, living with her Yiddish-speaking parents on the Lower East Side. So when, after a single careless night, she finds herself in a family way by a charismatic but unsuitable man, she is desperate: unwed, unsure, and running out of options.
Ěý
After the birth of five children—and twenty years as a housewife—Dottie’s immigrant mother, Rose, is itching to return to the social activism she embraced as a young woman. With strikes and breadlines at home and National Socialism rising in Europe, there is much more important work to do than cooking and cleaning. So when she realizes that she, too, is pregnant, she struggles to reconcile her longings with her faith.
Ěý
As mother and daughter wrestle with unthinkable choices, they are forced to confront their beliefs, the changing world, and the fact that their lives will never again be the same�.]]> 384 Jennifer S. Brown 045147712X Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.85 2016 Modern Girls
author: Jennifer S. Brown
name: Mary
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/30
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Language of Stones (Daughters of La Lune #2)]]> 27274426 The Witch of Painted Sorrows.

Nestled within Paris’s historic Palais Royal is a jewelry store unlike any other. La Fantasie Russie is owned by Pavel Orloff, protégé to the famous Faberge, and is known by the city’s fashion elite as the place to find the rarest of gemstones and the most unique designs. But war has transformed Paris from a city of style and romance to a place of fear and mourning. In the summer of 1918, places where lovers used to walk, widows now wander alone.

So it is from La Fantasie Russie’s workshop that young, ambitious Opaline Duplessi now spends her time making trench watches for soldiers at the front, as well as mourning jewelry for the mothers, wives, and lovers of those who have fallen. People say that Opaline’s creations are magical. But magic is a word Opaline would rather not use. The concept is too closely associated with her mother Sandrine, who practices the dark arts passed down from their ancestor La Lune, one of sixteenth century Paris’s most famous courtesans.

But Opaline does have a rare gift even she can’t deny, a form of lithomancy that allows her to translate the energy emanating from stones. Certain gemstones, combined with a personal item, such as a lock of hair, enable her to receive messages from beyond the grave. In her mind, she is no mystic, but merely a messenger, giving voice to soldiers who died before they were able to properly express themselves to loved ones. Until one day, one of these fallen soldiers communicates a message—directly to her.

So begins a dangerous journey that will take Opaline into the darkest corners of wartime Paris and across the English Channel, where the exiled Romanov dowager empress is waiting to discover the fate of her family.]]> 320 M.J. Rose 1476778116 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.79 2016 The Secret Language of Stones (Daughters of La Lune #2)
author: M.J. Rose
name: Mary
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship]]> 34467028 Tattoos on the Heart, Gregory Boyle, shares what three decades of working with gang members in Los Angeles has taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of kinship.

In his first book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, Gregory Boyle introduced us to Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. Critics hailed that book as an “astounding literary and spiritual feat� (Publishers Weekly) that is “destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality� (Los Angeles Times). Now, after the suc­cessful expansion of Homeboy Industries, Boyle returns with Barking to the Choir to reveal how com­passion is transforming the lives of gang members.

In a nation deeply divided and plagued by poverty and violence, Barking to the Choir offers a snapshot into the challenges and joys of life on the margins. Sergio, arrested at nine, in a gang by twelve, and serving time shortly thereafter, now works with the substance-abuse team at Homeboy to help others find sobriety. Jamal, abandoned by his family when he tried to attend school at age seven, gradually finds forgive­ness for his schizophrenic mother. New father Cuco, who never knew his own dad, thinks of a daily adventure on which to take his four-year-old son. These former gang members uplift the soul and reveal how bright life can be when filled with unconditional love and kindness.

This book is guaranteed to shake up our ideas about God and about people with a glimpse at a world defined by more compassion and fewer barriers. Gently and humorously, Barking to the Choir invites us to find kinship with one another and reconvinces us all of our own goodness.]]> 224 Gregory Boyle 1476726159 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.56 2017 Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship
author: Gregory Boyle
name: Mary
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Valley (The Valley Trilogy #1)]]> 29003418
What follows will test her courage and that of her companions as they struggle to survive a journey deep into a hostile wilderness and eventually forge a community of homesteads and deep bonds that will unite them for generations.

The first installment in an epic historical trilogy by Helen Bryan, the bestselling author of War Brides and The Sisterhood, The Valley is a sweeping, unforgettable tale of hardship, tenacity, love, and heartache.]]> Helen Bryan 1522639276 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.41 2016 The Valley (The Valley Trilogy #1)
author: Helen Bryan
name: Mary
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> Women & Power: A Manifesto 36525023 Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial. As far back as Homer’s Odyssey, Beard shows, women have been prohibited from leadership roles in civic life, public speech being defined as inherently male. From Medusa to Philomela (whose tongue was cut out), from Hillary Clinton to Elizabeth Warren (who was told to sit down), Beard draws illuminating parallels between our cultural assumptions about women’s relationship to power—and how powerful women provide a necessary example for all women who must resist being vacuumed into a male template. With personal reflections on her own online experiences with sexism, Beard asks: If women aren’t perceived to be within the structure of power, isn’t it power itself we need to redefine? And how many more centuries should we be expected to wait?]]> 115 Mary Beard 1631494759 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.02 2017 Women & Power: A Manifesto
author: Mary Beard
name: Mary
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/01/30
shelves: to-read, library-available
review:

]]> We Are Not Ourselves 17830123
Born in 1941, Eileen Tumulty is raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Woodside, Queens, in an apartment where the mood swings between heartbreak and hilarity, depending on whether guests are over and how much alcohol has been consumed.

When Eileen meets Ed Leary, a scientist whose bearing is nothing like those of the men she grew up with, she thinks she's found the perfect partner to deliver her to the cosmopolitan world she longs to inhabit. They marry, and Eileen quickly discovers Ed doesn't aspire to the same, ever bigger, stakes in the American Dream.

Eileen encourages her husband to want more: a better job, better friends, a better house, but as years pass it becomes clear that his growing reluctance is part of a deeper psychological shift. An inescapable darkness enters their lives, and Eileen and Ed and their son Connell try desperately to hold together a semblance of the reality they have known, and to preserve, against long odds, an idea they have cherished of the future.

Through the Learys, novelist Matthew Thomas charts the story of the American Century, particularly the promise of domestic bliss and economic prosperity that captured hearts and minds after WWII. The result is a riveting and affecting work of art; one that reminds us that life is more than a tally of victories and defeats, that we live to love and be loved, and that we should tell each other so before the moment slips away.

Epic in scope, heroic in character, masterful in prose, We Are Not Ourselves heralds the arrival of a major new talent in contemporary fiction.]]> 620 Matthew Thomas 147675666X Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.69 2014 We Are Not Ourselves
author: Matthew Thomas
name: Mary
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> The Weight of Ink 30971715 An intellectual and emotional jigsaw puzzle of a novel for readers ofĚýA. S. Byatt’s Possession and Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book.

Set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, anĚýemigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history.Ěý Ěý

As the novel opens, Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of seventeenth-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation. Enlisting the help of Aaron Levy, an American graduate student as impatient as he is charming, and in a race with another fast-moving team of historians, Helen embarks on one last project: to determine the identity of the documentsâ€� scribe, the elusiveĚý“Aleph.”ĚýĚýĚ�

Electrifying and ambitious, sweeping in scope and intimate in tone, The Weight of Ink is a sophisticatedĚýwork of historical fiction about women separated by centuries, and the choices and sacrifices they must makeĚýin orderĚýreconcile the life of the heart and mind.]]> 576 Rachel Kadish 0544866460 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.13 2017 The Weight of Ink
author: Rachel Kadish
name: Mary
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The War I Finally Won (The War That Saved My Life, #2)]]> 33865643 Ěý
World War II continues, and forces the small community to come together and rely on one another. Ada has never been interested in getting to know her friend’s family—especially Maggie’s mother, the formidable Lady Thorton. However, circumstances bring them in close proximity along with other unexpected characters.

Ada comes face to face with another German! This time she isn’t sure what she should do. How can she help the ones she loves and keep them safe?

Ada’s first story, The War that Saved My Life, won a Newbery Honor, the Schneider Family Book Award, and the Josette Frank Award, in addition to appearing on multiple best-of-the-year lists. This second, marvelous volume continues Ada’s powerful, uplifting story.]]> 387 Kimberly Brubaker Bradley 0525429204 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 4.46 2017 The War I Finally Won (The War That Saved My Life, #2)
author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
name: Mary
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/30
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]]> Winter (Seasonal, #2) 34516974 The dazzling second novel in Ali Smith’s essential Seasonal Quartet—from the Baileys Prize-winning, Man Booker-shortlisted author of Autumn and How to be Both.

Winter? Bleak. Frosty wind, earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes. The shortest days, the longest nights. The trees are bare and shivering. The summer’s leaves? Dead litter.

The world shrinks; the sap sinks.
But winter makes things visible. And if there’s ice, there’ll be fire.

In Ali Smith's Winter, lifeforce matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel in her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to her sensational Autumn, Smith's shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story rooted in history, memory and warmth, its taproot deep in the evergreens: art, love, laughter.

It’s the season that teaches us survival.
Here comes Winter.]]> 322 Ali Smith 0241207029 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.81 2017 Winter (Seasonal, #2)
author: Ali Smith
name: Mary
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> Winter of Ice and Iron 34466992
With the Mad King of Emmer in the north and the vicious King of Pohorir in the east, Kehara Raehema knows her country is in a vulnerable position. She never expected to give up everything she loves to save her people, but when the Mad King’s fury leaves her land in danger, she has no choice but to try any stratagem that might buy time for her people to prepare for war—no matter the personal cost.

Hundreds of miles away, the pitiless Wolf Duke of Pohorir, Innisth Eanete, dreams of breaking his people and his province free of the king he despises. But he has no way to make that happen—until chance unexpectedly leaves Kehara on his doorstep and at his mercy.

Yet in a land where immanent spirits inhabit the earth, political disaster is not the greatest peril one can face. Now, as the year rushes toward the dangerous midwinter, Kehera and Innisth find themselves unwilling allies, and their joined strength is all that stands between the peoples of the Four Kingdoms and utter catastrophe.]]> 561 Rachel Neumeier 1481448978 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.58 2017 Winter of Ice and Iron
author: Rachel Neumeier
name: Mary
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/23
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]]> The Hearts of Men 30531538
Over the years, Nelson, irrevocably scarred from the Vietnam War, becomes Scoutmaster of Camp Chippewa, while Jonathan marries, divorces, and turns his father’s business into a highly profitable company. And when something unthinkable happens at a camp get-together with Nelson as Scoutmaster and Jonathan’s teenage grandson and daughter-in-law as campers, the aftermath demonstrates the depths—and the limits—of Nelson’s selflessness and bravery.

The Hearts of Men is a sweeping, panoramic novel about the slippery definitions of good and evil, family and fidelity, the challenges and rewards of lifelong friendships, the bounds of morality—and redemption.]]> 400 Nickolas Butler 0062469703 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.76 2017 The Hearts of Men
author: Nickolas Butler
name: Mary
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/23
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]]> Freya 25870438
Flitting from war-haunted Oxford to the bright new shallows of the 1960s, Freya plots the unpredictable course of a woman’s life and loves against a backdrop of Soho pornographers, theatrical peacocks, willowy models, priapic painters, homophobic blackmailers, political careerists.

Beneath the relentless thrum of changing times and a city being reshaped, we glimpse the eternal: the battles fought by women in pursuit of independence, the intimate mysteries of the human heart, and the search for love. Stretching from the Nuremberg war trials to the advent of the TV celebrity, from innocence abroad to bitter experience at home, Freya presents the portrait of an extraordinary woman taking arms against a sea of political and personal tumult.]]> 464 Anthony Quinn 1910702501 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.99 2016 Freya
author: Anthony Quinn
name: Mary
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/23
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]]> The Turner House 22749750 341 Angela Flournoy 0544303164 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.61 2015 The Turner House
author: Angela Flournoy
name: Mary
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/23
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]]> In the Midst of Winter 34686052 New York Times and worldwide bestselling “dazzling storyteller� (Associated Press) Isabel Allende returns with a sweeping novel about three very different people who are brought together in a mesmerizing story that journeys from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil.

In the Midst of Winter begins with a minor traffic accident—which becomes the catalyst for an unexpected and moving love story between two people who thought they were deep into the winter of their lives. Richard Bowmaster—a 60-year-old human rights scholar—hits the car of Evelyn Ortega—a young, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala—in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn. What at first seems just a small inconvenience takes an unforeseen and far more serious turn when Evelyn turns up at the professor’s house seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant Lucia Maraz—a 62-year-old lecturer from Chile—for her advice. These three very different people are brought together in a mesmerizing story that moves from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil, sparking the beginning of a long overdue love story between Richard and Lucia.

Exploring the timely issues of human rights and the plight of immigrants and refugees, the book recalls Allende’s landmark novel The House of the Spirits in the way it embraces the cause of “humanity, and it does so with passion, humor, and wisdom that transcend politics� (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post). In the Midst of Winter will stay with you long after you turn the final page.]]> 10 Isabel Allende 147116702X Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.62 2017 In the Midst of Winter
author: Isabel Allende
name: Mary
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> Impossible Saints 35407551 Set in England in 1907, Impossible Saints is a novel that burns as brightly as the suffrage movement it depicts, with the emotional resonance of Tracy Chevalier and Jennifer Robson.

Escaping the constraints of life as a village schoolmistress, Lilia Brooke bursts into London and into Paul Harris’s orderly life, shattering his belief that women are gentle creatures who need protection. Lilia wants to change women’s lives by advocating for the vote, free unions, and contraception. Paul, an Anglican priest, has a big ambition of his own: to become the youngest dean of St. John’s Cathedral. Lilia doesn’t believe in God, but she’s attracted to Paul’s intellect, ethics, and dazzling smile.

As Lilia finds her calling in the militant Women’s Social and Political Union, Paul is increasingly driven to rise in the church. They can’t deny their attraction, but they know they don’t belong in each other’s worlds. Lilia would rather serve time in prison than see her spirit destroyed and imprisoned by marriage to a clergyman, while Paul wants nothing more than to settle down and keep Lilia out of harm’s way. Paul and Lilia must reach their breaking points before they can decide whether their love is worth fighting for.]]> 304 Clarissa Harwood 1681776243 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.66 2018 Impossible Saints
author: Clarissa Harwood
name: Mary
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/23
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]]> The Wolves of Winter 32920273
Lynn McBride has learned much since society collapsed in the face of nuclear war and the relentless spread of disease. As memories of her old life haunt her, she has been forced to forge ahead in the snow-covered Canadian Yukon, learning how to hunt and trap to survive.

But her fragile existence is about to be shattered. Shadows of the world before have found her tiny community—most prominently in the enigmatic figure of Jax, who sets in motion a chain of events that will force Lynn to fulfill a destiny she never imagined.]]> 312 Tyrell Johnson 1501155679 Mary 0 to-read, library-available 3.73 2018 The Wolves of Winter
author: Tyrell Johnson
name: Mary
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/23
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